Newcastle have bid 'rejected' for Brazilian midfielder - Reports
According to Le10Sport, Newcastle United have had a bid rejected to sign Lille midfielder Thiago Maia - the Brazilian international who has been catching the eye in the French league last season.
As with anything at this time of the year, it is not yet known if this is true (see false claims that we'd bid for Besiktas' captain over the weekend!), however Ligue 1 is a division we've tended to have our eye on in recent years.
The report states that we've held 'long standing' interest in the Brazilian (who plays for their U-23 side), although we appear to have been unsuccessful with our opening bid:
Here's a snippet from Le10Sport's story:
"According to our information, an English club has approached LOSC for its Brazilian midfielder, Thiago Maia .
"This is Newcastle , interested in the profile of the player for a long time. A Premier League runner, coached by Rafael Benitez , Newcastle has even drawn a transfer offer whose amount has not filtered. However, the LOSC did not accept this proposal and indicated that it was not a seller for Thiago Maia . In any case, not at this price ..."
https://twitter.com/MsiDouglas/status/1004311503418351616
The former Santos midfielder played 37 times for Lille last season and scored once, tending to operate in a holding midfield role.
Here's a glimpse of him in action:
